Alliterative Verse: a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal structuring device to unify lines of poetry, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme; stemming from the Germanic lands and evidenced in Anglo-Saxon epics.
Affective Piety: another way of saying someone is reliant on dramatic gestures of faith.
Mystical Experience:
- Ineffablity (feeling, not intellect)
- noetic quality ("perceive")
- Transcience
- Passivity
- experience of unity
- timelessness
- new understanding of self
- ascension through stages: purgation, illumination, union with God.
Norman Conquest: William the Conqueror and the Normans conquer England in 1066.
Breton Lai: a form of medieval French and English romance literature. Lais are short (typically 600–1000 lines), rhymed tales of love and chivalry, often involving supernatural and fairy-world Celtic motifs.
Lanval: promises not to reveal the identity of his mistress, which he breaks when Guinevere accuses him of having "no desire for women".
Romance: fantastic stories about the marvelous adventures of a chivalrous, heroic knight errant, often of super-human ability, who often goes on a quest.
Courtly Love: An idealized and often illicit form of love celebrated in the literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in which a knight or courtier devotes himself to a noblewoman who is usually married and feigns indifference to preserve her reputation. The courtly lover existed to serve his lady.
Mary as Intercessor:
Geoffrey of Monmouth: Writer and author who created the main framework of Arthurian legend and the figure of Arthur as a semi-historical British king.
Petrarch: Italian scholar; known as "Father of Humanism"; known for being one of the first people to refer to the Dark Ages.
Sir Gawain: has the reputation of being a great knight and courtly lover. He prides himself on his observance of the five points of chivalry in every aspect of his life. Gawain is a pinnacle of humility, piety, integrity, loyalty, and honesty. His only flaw proves to be that he loves his own life so much that he will lie in order to protect himself. Gawain leaves the Green Chapel penitent and changed.
King Arthur: The king of Camelot; steps forward to take on the Green Knight's challenge. At the story’s end, Arthur joins his nephew in wearing a green girdle on his arm, showing that Gawain’s trial has taught him about his own fallibility.
Bertilak de Hautdessert: The sturdy, good-natured lord of the castle where Gawain spends Christmas; associated with the natural world but also with the courtly behavior of an aristocratic host. Boisterous, powerful, brave, and generous, Lord Bertilak provides an interesting foil to King Arthur. At the end of the poem we learn that Bertilak and the Green Knight are the same person, magically enchanted by Morgan le Faye for her own designs.
Green Girdle: Gawain's acceptance of this teaches him that though he may be the most chivalrous knight in the land, he is nevertheless human and capable of error; reminds him of his weakness. Gawain curses the girdle as representing cowardice and an excessive love of mortal life. He wears it from then on as a badge of his sinfulness.
Green Chapel: the place where Gawain must meet the Green Knight a year later to offer his own head in the challenge.
Blank Verse: a type of poetry, distinguished by having a regular meter, but no rhyme.
Sonnet: a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter with a carefully patterned rhyme scheme.
St. Thomas Becket: "The Canterbury Tales" is a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.
Wife of Bath: describes her two “bad” husbands then tells of a knight who rapes a girl and is then judged by Queen Guinevere--what do women want? Women most desire to be in charge of their husbands and lovers.
"Olde Wif": old hag that gives the knight the correct answer that saves his life but forces him to marry her; he is repulsed and wishes her beautiful but lets her choose...she then become beautiful AND good.
Chauntecleer: master of all roosters; has a upsetting dream about being murdered and tells his wife; tells the stories of men who dreamed of murder and then discovered it; later captured by fox but outsmarts him by telling him to boast to his pursuers.
Pertelote: hen that Chauntecleer loves the most; believes his dream is just indigestion and gives him laxatives.
Fabliau: French, comic stories under the influence of the fable; deals realistically and satirically with middle-class or lower-class characters.
Beast Fable: short, simple narrative with speaking animals as characters designed to teach a moral or social truth (Nun's Priest's Tale).
Canterbury Cathedral: one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England.
Sir Lancelot: Arthur's best knight and the commander of his forces; has an affair with Guinevere
Guinevere: Arthur's wife and Lancelot's lover. Guinevere encourages moral and chivalrous behavior from the knights, and she dearly loves and is loved by both Arthur and Lancelot.
Lady of the Lake: lady who give Excalibur to Arthur when he becomes King.
Avalon: is a legendary island featured in the Arthurian legend, famous for its beautiful apples; place where Excalibur was forged.
Wars of the Roses: the civil wars fought in medieval England from 1455 to 1487 between the House of Lancaster and the House of York.
Chivalry: idealized code of conduct for medieval knights, chivalry exalted courage and courtesy in battle, courtesy towards women, generousity to one's inferiors and loyalty to one's lord.
Sir Mordred: notorious traitor who fought King Arthur at the Battle of Camlann, where he was killed and Arthur fatally wounded.
Excalibur: sword of Arthur that he pulled out of the stone, signifying that he would be the mightiest king of his time.
William Caxton: English printer, translator, and publisher; first to introduce a printing press into England.
Battle of Bosworth Field: the penultimate battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the House of Lancaster and the House of York.
Henry VIII: his role in the separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church; establishing himself as the Supreme Head of the Church of England; had six wives—two of whom he had beheaded
English Reformation: started in the reign of Henry VIII. The English Reformation was to have far reaching consequences in Tudor England. Henry VIII decided to rid himself of his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, after she had failed to produce a male heir to the throne. He had already decided who his next wife would be - Anne Boleyn. The Roman Catholic Church would not allow it, so he created the Church of England, which broke away from the authority of the pope.
Fall of Constantinople: the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire which occurred after a siege laid by the Ottoman Empire, under the command of Sultan Mehmed II.
Elizabeth I: Queen of England and Ireland between 1558 and 1603. She was an absolute monarch and is considered to be one of the most successful rulers of all time; restored Protestantism.
Armada: the Spanish fleet that sailed against England under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1588, with the intention of overthrowing Elizabeth I of England.
Spenserian Stanza: a stanza with eight lines of iambic pentameter and a concluding Alexandrine with the rhyme pattern abab bcbc c; "the Spenserian stanza was introduced by Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene"
Redcrosse Knight: "holiness"; must find "truth" (Una); On another level, though, he is the individual Christian fighting against evil--or the Protestant fighting the Catholic Church. For a Christian to be holy, he must have true faith, and so the plot of Book I mostly concerns the attempts of evildoers to separate Redcrosse from Una; he must defeat villains who mimic the falsehood of the Roman Church.
Una: "truth" Redcrosse's future wife;. She is meek, humble, and beautiful, but strong when it is necessary; she represents Truth, which Redcrosse must find in order to be a true Christian; Elizabeth(?)
Archimago: Archimago is a sorcerer capable of changing his own appearance or that of others; in the end, his magic is proven weak and ineffective; represents "false hope"--impersonates Redcrosse to Una.
Error: Ignoring her warnings, Redcrosse enters and is attacked by the terrible beast, Error, and her young. She wraps him up in her tail, but he eventually manages to strangle her and chops off her head. Error's young then drink her blood until they burst and die. "Her vomit full of bookes and papers was (I.i.20)." These papers represent Roman Catholic propaganda that was put out in Spenser's time, against Queen Elizabeth and Anglicanism.
Duessa/Fidessa: "sensuality", "falsehood"; 2-faced; a witch; whore of Babylon; the opposite of Una, she represents falsehood and nearly succeeds in getting Redcrosse to leave Una for good. She appears beautiful, but it is only skin-deep;
Lady Pride: Lucifera, pulled by six beasts representing the other deadly sins.
Despair: a gloomy old man; he causes Terwin to kill himself and Redcrosse wants to have revenge; argues that death brings an end to sin so its good; knows of Redcrosse's sins and almost persuades him to take his own life until Una steps in and pulls him out. The truth of God's mercy is greater than despair, not the strength of the lion.
Dragon: "all evil in the world"; has impenetrable scales; Well of Life saves Redcrosse when Dragon almost burns him; killed when sword is thrust into his throat.
Catchword: a word printed at the top of the page of a dictionary or other reference book to indicate the first or last item on that page
Chain Lines: Watermark-like lines perpendicular to laid lines in a sheet of hand-made or laid paper.
Incunabula: a book, or even a single sheet of text, that was printed--not handwritten--before the year 1501 in Europe
Manuscript: the form of a literary work submitted for publication; handwritten book or document
Vellum: mammal skin prepared for writing or printing on, to produce single pages, scrolls, codices or books.
Rowlandson